One Word: Post-Reconstruction

From The New Civil Rights Movement, “Right-wing evangelical Franklin Graham spent the weekend promoting anti-LGBTQ extremist hate to his nearly 10 million Facebook followers, including by attacking The Walt Disney Company, criticizing the Biden administration’s support of medically-necessary treatment for transgender children, posting a video of his home state’s Lt. Governor preaching jaw-droppingly vulgar attacks on transgender people, and even calling for ‘regime change’ in the United States because he opposes science that support LGBTQ children and teens.”

I don’t know what else to say to the LGBTQ community. The walls are closing in on the gays. Do not think these latest attacks on gay rights are simply another phase of the same bigotry. RepubliKKKlans and evil evangelicals are intensifying their attacks. This is not more of the same but in a different decade. This is altogether more dangerous.

And do not delude yourselves into believing that it means anything in the 21st century that LGBTQ members have risen to more positions of political power than ever before. Undoubtedly, more gay and transgender people are in government positions, including governors, mayors, legislators (state and federal), executives (state and federal; e.g., Secretary of Transportation), and judges. Yet such progress means nothing, for it can all be reversed. How can I say such a thing? How improbable would it be for society to turn on a minority group that continues to progress year after year? Surely, once the door has been opened, it can never be closed. The LGBTQ community has achieved too much political power to be shoved back into the closet.

I have considered these questions, but then I am reminded of another historical achievement and its aftermath: Emancipation, Reconstruction, and post-Reconstruction. Without going into historical detail, suffice it to say that during Reconstruction, Blacks achieved much — economic, educational, and political parity with their white counterparts. But in 10 years, when Reconstruction ended and Jim Crow began, all those achievements were erased. So, do not think that gay rights are safe in America. History has already proved the counterfactual with Black rights. Wake the f*** up LGBTQ members. Rise up! They are coming for your rights, and they will not stop until they succeed. When people pine for a Christain white nationalist America, they mean to exclude the gays too. Mark my words!